Password: View: ... VB The following sample demonstrates the code above.

VB Style9.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Section Summary 1. ASP.NET's HTML server control and Web server control families provide first-class support for CSS styles. 2. Styles may be applied by setting either the style or the class attributes of a control. These settings are accessible programmatically through the control's Attributes collection. In the case of HTML server controls, individual values for style-attribute keys can be retrieved from the control's Style collection. 3. Most commonly used style settings are exposed on Web server controls as strongly typed properties of the control itself. 4. The System.Web.UI.WebControls namespace includes a Style base class that encapsulates common style attributes. Many Web server controls expose properties of this type to control individual rendering elements. 5. Styles may be set programmatically on Web server controls using the ApplyStyle method of the WebControl base class.

Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Server Control Form Validation Getting Started Introduction What is ASP.NET? Language Support ASP.NET Web Forms Introducing Web Forms Working with Server Controls Applying Styles to Controls Server Control Form Validation Web Forms User Controls Data Binding Server Controls Server-Side Data Access Data Access and Customization Working with Business Objects Authoring Custom Controls Web Forms Controls Reference Web Forms Syntax Reference ASP.NET Web Services Introducing Web Services Writing a Simple Web Service Web Service Type Marshalling Using Data in Web Services Using Objects and Intrinsics The WebService Behavior HTML Pattern Matching ASP.NET Web Applications Application Overview Using the Global.asax File Managing Application State HttpHandlers and Factories Cache Services Caching Overview Page Output Caching Page Fragment Caching Page Data Caching Configuration Configuration Overview Configuration File Format Retrieving Configuration

Introduction to Validation Types of Validation Controls Client-Side Validation Displaying Validation Errors Working with CompareValidator Working with RangeValidator Working with Regular Expressions Performing Custom Validation Bringing It All Together Section Summary

Introduction to Validation The Web Forms framework includes a set of validation server controls that provide an easy-to-use but powerful way to check input forms for errors and, if necessary, display messages to the user. Validation controls are added to a Web Forms page like other server controls. There are controls for specific types of validation, such as range checking or pattern matching, plus a RequiredFieldValidator that ensures that a user does not skip an entry field. You can attach more than one validation control to an input control. For example, you might specify both that an entry is required and that it must contain a specific range of values. Validation controls work with a limited subset of HTML and Web server controls. For each control, a specific property contains the value to be validated. The following table lists the input controls that may be validated. Control

Validation Property

HtmlInputText

Value

HtmlTextArea

Value

HtmlSelect

Value

HtmlInputFile

Value

TextBox

Text

ListBox

SelectedItem.Value

DropDownList

SelectedItem.Value

RadioButtonList

SelectedItem.Value

Types of Validation Controls The simplest form of validation is a required field. If the user enters any value in a field, it is valid. If all of the fields in the page are valid, the page is valid. The following example illustrates this using the RequiredFieldValidator.

Deployment Deploying Applications Using the Process Model Handling Errors Security Security Overview Authentication & Authorization Windows-based Authentication Forms-based Authentication Authorizing Users and Roles User Account Impersonation Security and WebServices Localization Internationalization Overview Setting Culture and Encoding Localizing ASP.NET Applications Working with Resource Files Tracing Tracing Overview Trace Logging to Page Output Application-level Trace Logging

VB Validator1.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] There are also validation controls for specific types of validation, such as range checking or pattern matching. The following table lists the validation controls. Control Name

Description

RequiredFieldValidator

Ensures that the user does not skip an entry.

CompareValidator

Compares a user's entry with a constant value or a property value of another control using a comparison operator (less than, equal to, greater than, and so on).

RangeValidator

Checks that a user's entry is between specified lower and upper boundaries. You can check ranges within pairs of numbers, alphabetic characters, or dates. Boundaries can be expressed as constants.

Debugging The SDK Debugger Performance Performance Overview Performance Tuning Tips Measuring Performance ASP to ASP.NET Migration Migration Overview Syntax and Semantics Language Compatibility COM Interoperability Transactions Sample Applications A Personalized Portal An E-Commerce Storefront A Class Browser Application IBuySpy.com Get URL for this page

RegularExpressionValidator Checks that the entry matches a pattern defined by a regular expression. This type of validation allows you to check for predictable sequences of characters, such as those in social security numbers, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, postal codes, and so on. CustomValidator

Checks the user's entry using validation logic that you code yourself. This type of validation allows you to check for values derived at run time.

ValidationSummary

Displays the validation errors in summary form for all of the validators on a page.

Client-Side Validation The validation controls always perform validation checking in server code. However, if the user is working with a browser that supports DHTML, the validation controls can also perform validation using client script. With client-side validation, any errors are detected on the client when the form is submitted to the server. If any of the validators are found to be in error, the submission of the form to the server is cancelled and the validator's Text property is displayed. This permits the user to correct the input before submitting the form to the server. Field values are revalidated as soon as the field containing the error loses focus, thus providing the user with a rich, interactive validation experience. Note that the Web Forms page framework always performs validation on the server, even if the validation has already been performed on the client. This helps prevent users from being able to bypass validation by impersonating another user or a preapproved transaction. Client-side validation is enabled by default. If the client is capable, uplevel validation will be performed automatically. To disable client-side validation, set the page's ClientTarget property to "Downlevel" ("Uplevel" forces client-side validation).

VB Validator2.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Displaying Validation Errors When the user's input is processed (for example, when the form is submitted), the Web Forms page framework passes the user's entry to the associated validation control or controls. The validation controls test the user's input and set a property to indicate whether the entry passed the validation test. After all validation controls have been processed, the IsValid property on the page is set; if any of the controls shows that a validation check failed, the entire page is set to invalid. If a validation control is in error, an error message may be displayed in the page by that validation control or in a ValidationSummary control elsewhere on the page. The ValidationSummary control is displayed when the IsValid property of the page is false. It polls each of the validation controls on the page and aggregates the text messages exposed by each. The following example illustrates displaying errors with a ValidationSummary control.

VB Validator3.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Working with CompareValidator The CompareValidator server control compares the values of two controls. CompareValidator uses three key properties to perform its validation. ControlToValidate and ControlToCompare contain the values to compare. Operator defines the type of comparison to perform--for example, Equal or Not Equal. CompareValidator performs the validation by evaluating these properties as an expression, as follows: ( ControlToValidate ControlToCompare ) If the expression evaluates true, the validation result is valid.

The following sample shows how to use the CompareValidator control.

VB Validator4.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Working with RangeValidator The RangeValidator server control tests whether an input value falls within a given range. RangeValidator uses three key properties to perform its validation. ControlToValidate contains the value to validate. MinimumValue and MaximumValue define the minimum and maximum values of the valid range.

This sample shows how to use the RangeValidator control.

VB Validator5.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Working with Regular Expressions The RegularExpressionValidator server control checks that the entry matches a pattern defined by a regular expression. This type of validation allows you to check for predictable sequences of characters, such as those in social security numbers, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, postal codes, and so on.

RegularExpressionValidator uses two key properties to perform its validation. ControlToValidate contains the value to validate. ValidationExpression contains the regular expression to match.

These samples illustrates using the RegularExpressionValidator control.

VB Validator6.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

VB Validator7.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Performing Custom Validation The CustomValidator server control calls a user-defined function to perform validations that the standard validators can't handle. The custom function can execute on the server or in clientside script, such as JScript or VBScript. For client-side custom validation, the name of the custom function must be identified in the ClientValidationFunction property. The custom function must have the form function myvalidator(source, arguments) Note that source is the client-side CustomValidator object, and arguments is an object with two properties, Value and IsValid. The Value property is the value to be validated and the IsValid property is a Boolean used to set the return result of the validation.

For server-side custom validation, place your custom validation in the validator's OnServerValidate delegate.

The following sample shows how to use the CustomValidator control.

VB Validator8.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Bringing It All Together This sample shows a typical registration form, using the variations of validation controls discussed in this topic.

VB Validator9.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Section Summary

1. 2. 3. 4.

Validator controls can be used to validate input on any Web Forms page. More than one control can be used on a given input field. Client-side validation may be used in addition to server validation to improve form usability. The CustomValidator control lets the user define custom validation criteria.

Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Web Forms User Controls Getting Started Introduction What is ASP.NET? Language Support ASP.NET Web Forms Introducing Web Forms Working with Server Controls Applying Styles to Controls Server Control Form Validation Web Forms User Controls Data Binding Server Controls Server-Side Data Access Data Access and Customization Working with Business Objects Authoring Custom Controls Web Forms Controls Reference Web Forms Syntax Reference ASP.NET Web Services Introducing Web Services Writing a Simple Web Service Web Service Type Marshalling Using Data in Web Services Using Objects and Intrinsics The WebService Behavior HTML Pattern Matching ASP.NET Web Applications Application Overview Using the Global.asax File Managing Application State HttpHandlers and Factories Cache Services Caching Overview Page Output Caching Page Fragment Caching Page Data Caching Configuration Configuration Overview Configuration File Format Retrieving Configuration Deployment Deploying Applications Using the Process Model Handling Errors Security Security Overview Authentication & Authorization Windows-based Authentication Forms-based Authentication Authorizing Users and Roles

Introduction to User Controls Exposing User Control Properties Encapsulating Events in a User Control Creating User Controls Programmatically Section Summary

Introduction to User Controls In addition to the built-in server controls provided by ASP.NET, you can easily define your own controls using the same programming techniques that you have already learned for writing Web Forms pages. In fact, with just a few modifications, almost any Web Forms page can be reused in another page as a server control (note that a user control is of type System.Web.UI.UserControl, which inherits directly from System.Web.UI.Control). A Web Forms page used as a server control is named a user control for short. As a matter of convention, the .ascx extension is used to indicate such controls. This ensures that the user control's file cannot be executed as a standalone Web Forms page (you will see a little that there are a few, albeit important, differences between a user control and a Web Forms page). User controls are included in a Web Forms page using a Register directive: <%@ Register TagPrefix="Acme" TagName="Message" Src="pagelet1.ascx" %> The TagPrefix determines a unique namespace for the user control (so that multiple user controls with the same name can be differentiated from each other). The TagName is the unique name for the user control (you can choose any name). The Src attribute is the virtual path to the user control--for example "MyPagelet.ascx" or "/MyApp/Include/MyPagelet.ascx". After registering the user control, you may place the user control tag in the Web Forms page just as you would an ordinary server control (including the runat="server" attribute): The following example shows a user control imported into another Web Forms page. Note that the user control in this case is just a simple static file.

VB Pagelet1.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Exposing User Control Properties When a Web Forms page is treated as a control, the public fields and methods of that Web Form are promoted to public properties (that is, tag attributes) and methods of the control as well. The following example shows an extension of the previous user control example that adds two public String fields. Notice that these fields can be set either declaratively or programmatically in the containing page.

User Account Impersonation Security and WebServices Localization Internationalization Overview Setting Culture and Encoding Localizing ASP.NET Applications Working with Resource Files Tracing Tracing Overview Trace Logging to Page Output Application-level Trace Logging Debugging The SDK Debugger Performance Performance Overview Performance Tuning Tips Measuring Performance ASP to ASP.NET Migration Migration Overview Syntax and Semantics Language Compatibility COM Interoperability Transactions

VB Pagelet2.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] In addition to promoting public fields to control properties, the property syntax may be used. Property syntax has the advantage of being able to execute code when properties are set or retrieved. The following example demonstrates an Address user control that wraps the text properties of TextBox controls within it. The benefit of doing this is that the control inherits the automatic state management of the TextBox control for free. Notice that there are two Address user controls on the containing Web Forms page that set the Caption property to "Billing Address" and "Shipping Address", respectively. The real power of user controls is in this type of reusability.

VB Pagelet3.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Another useful user control is a Login control for collecting user names and passwords.

Sample Applications A Personalized Portal An E-Commerce Storefront A Class Browser Application IBuySpy.com Get URL for this page

VB Pagelet4.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] In this example, form validation controls are added to the Login user control.

VB Pagelet5.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Encapsulating Events in a User Control User controls participate in the complete execution lifecycle of the request, much the way ordinary server controls do. This means that a user control can handle its own events, encapsulating some of the page logic from the containing Web Forms page. The following example demonstrates a product-listing user control that internally handles its own postbacks. Note that the user control itself has no wrapping control. Because only one form control may be present on a page (ASP.NET does not allow nested server

forms), it is left to the containing Web Forms page to define this.

VB Pagelet6.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Creating User Controls Programmatically Just as ordinary server controls can be created programmatically, so user controls can be. The page's LoadControl method is used to load the user control, passing the virtual path to the user control's source file:

Dim c1 As Control = LoadControl("pagelet7.ascx") CType(c1, (Pagelet7VB)).Category = "business" Page.Controls.Add(c1) VB The type of the user control is determined by a ClassName attribute on the Control directive. For example, a user control saved with the file name "pagelet7.ascx" is assigned the strong type "Pagelet7CS" as follows: <%@ Control ClassName="Pagelet7CS" %> Because the LoadControl method returns a type of System.Web.UI.Control, it must be cast to the appropriate strong type in order to set individual properties of the control. Finally, the user control is added to the base page's ControlCollection.

VB Pagelet7.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Important The strong type for a user control is available to the containing Web Forms page only if a Register directive is included for the user control (even if there are no user control tags actually declared).

Section Summary 1. User controls allow developers to easily define custom controls using the same programming techniques as for writing Web Forms pages. 2. As a matter of convention, an .ascx file name extension is used to indicate such controls. This ensures that a user control file cannot be executed as a standalone Web Forms page. 3. User controls are included into another Web Forms page using a Register directive, which specifies a TagPrefix, TagName, and Src location. 4. After the user control has been registered, a user control tag may be placed in a Web Forms page as an ordinary server control (including the runat="server" attribute). 5. The public fields, properties, and methods of a user control are promoted to public

6. 7. 8. 9.

properties (tag attributes) and methods of the control in the containing Web Forms page. User controls participate in the complete execution lifecycle of every request and can handle their own events, encapsulating some of the page logic from the containing Web Forms page. User controls should not contain any form controls but should instead rely on their containing Web Forms page to include one if necessary. User controls may be created programmatically using the LoadControl method of the System.Web.UI.Page class. The type of the user control is determined by the ASP.NET runtime, following the convention filename_extension. The strong type for a user control is available to the containing Web Forms page only if a Register directive is included for the user control (even if there are no user control tags actually declared).

Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Data Binding Server Controls Getting Started Introduction What is ASP.NET? Language Support ASP.NET Web Forms Introducing Web Forms Working with Server Controls Applying Styles to Controls Server Control Form Validation Web Forms User Controls Data Binding Server Controls Server-Side Data Access Data Access and Customization Working with Business Objects Authoring Custom Controls Web Forms Controls Reference Web Forms Syntax Reference ASP.NET Web Services Introducing Web Services Writing a Simple Web Service Web Service Type Marshalling Using Data in Web Services Using Objects and Intrinsics The WebService Behavior HTML Pattern Matching ASP.NET Web Applications Application Overview Using the Global.asax File Managing Application State HttpHandlers and Factories Cache Services Caching Overview Page Output Caching Page Fragment Caching Page Data Caching Configuration Configuration Overview Configuration File Format Retrieving Configuration Deployment Deploying Applications Using the Process Model Handling Errors Security Security Overview Authentication & Authorization Windows-based Authentication Forms-based Authentication Authorizing Users and Roles User Account Impersonation Security and WebServices Localization Internationalization Overview Setting Culture and Encoding Localizing ASP.NET Applications Working with Resource Files

Data Binding Overview and Syntax Binding to Simple Properties Binding to Collections & Lists Binding Expressions or Methods DataBinder.Eval() Section Summary

Data Binding Overview and Syntax ASP.NET introduces a new declarative data binding syntax. This extremely flexible syntax permits the developer to bind not only to data sources, but also to simple properties, collections, expressions, and even results returned from method calls. The following table shows some examples of the new syntax. Simple property Customer: <%# custID %> Collection

Orders:

Expression

Contact: <%# ( customer.First Name + " " + customer.LastName ) %>

Method result

Outstanding Balance: <%# GetBalance(custID) %>

Although this syntax looks similar to the ASP shortcut for Response.Write -- <%= %> -- its behavior is quite different. Whereas the ASP Response.Write shortcut syntax was evaluated when the page was processed, the ASP.NET data binding syntax is evaluated only when the DataBind method is invoked. DataBind is a method of the Page and all server controls. When you call DataBind on a parent control, it cascades to all of the children of the control. So, for example, DataList1.DataBind() invokes the DataBind method on each of the controls in the DataList templates. Calling DataBind on the Page -Page.DataBind() or simply DataBind() -- causes all data binding expressions on the page to be evaluated. DataBind is commonly called from the Page_Load event, as shown in the following example.

Protected Sub Page_Load(Src As Object, E As EventArgs) DataBind() End Sub VB You can use a binding expression almost anywhere in the declarative section of an .aspx page, provided it evaluates to the expected data type at run time. The simple property, expression, and method examples above display text to the user when evaluated. In these cases, the data binding expression must evaluate to a value of type String. In the collection example, the data binding expression evaluates to a value of valid type for the DataSource property of ListBox. You might find it necessary to coerce the type of value in your binding expression to produce the desired result. For example, if count is an integer: Number of Records: <%# count.ToString() %>

Binding to Simple Properties The ASP.NET data binding syntax supports binding to public variables, properties of the Page, and properties of other controls on the page. The following example illustrates binding to a public variable and simple property on the page. Note that these values are initialized before DataBind() is called.

VB DataBind1.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] The following example illustrates binding to a property of another control.

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VB DataBind2.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Binding to Collections and Lists List server controls like DataGrid, ListBox and HTMLSelect use a collection as a data source. The following examples illustrate binding to usual common language runtime collection types. These controls can bind only to collections that support the IEnumerable, ICollection, or IListSource interface. Most commonly, you'll bind to ArrayList, Hashtable, DataView and DataReader. The following example illustrates binding to an ArrayList.

VB DataBind3.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] The following example illustrates binding to a DataView. Note that the DataView class is defined in the System.Data namespace.

VB DataBind4.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] The following example illustrates binding to a Hashtable.

VB DataBind5.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Binding Expressions or Methods Often, you'll want to manipulate data before binding to your page or a control. The following example illustrates binding to an expression and the return value of a method.

VB DataBind6.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

DataBinder.Eval The ASP.NET framework supplies a static method that evaluates late-bound data binding expressions and optionally formats the result as a string. DataBinder.Eval is convenient in that it eliminates much of the explicit casting the developer must do to coerce values to the desired data type. It is particularly useful when data binding controls within a templated list, because often both the data row and the data field must be cast. Consider the following example, where an integer will be displayed as a currency string. With the standard ASP.NET data binding syntax, you must first cast the type of the data row in order to retrieve the data field, IntegerValue. Next, this is passed as an argument to the String.Format method.

<%# String.Format("{0:c}", (CType(Container.DataItem, DataRowView)("IntegerValue"))) %> VB This syntax can be complex and difficult to remember. In contrast, DataBinder.Eval is simply a method with three arguments: the naming container for the data item, the data field name, and a format string. In a templated list like DataList, DataGrid, or Repeater, the naming container is always Container.DataItem. Page is another naming container that can be used with DataBinder.Eval.

<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "IntegerValue", "{0:c}") %> VB The format string argument is optional. If it is omitted, DataBinder.Eval returns a value of type object, as shown in the following example.

<%# CType(DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "BoolValue"), Boolean) %> VB It is important to note that DataBinder.Eval can carry a noticeable performance penalty over the standard data binding syntax because it uses late-bound reflection. Use DataBinder.Eval judiciously, especially when string formatting is not required.

VB DataBind7.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Section Summary 1. The ASP.NET declarative data binding syntax uses the <%# %> notation. 2. You can bind to data sources, properties of the page or another control, collections, expressions, and results returned from method calls. 3. List controls can bind to collections that support the ICollection, IEnumerable, or IListSource interface, such as ArrayList, Hashtable, DataView, and DataReader. 4. DataBinder.Eval is a static method for late binding. Its syntax can be simpler than the standard data binding syntax, but performance is slower.

Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Server-Side Data Access Getting Started Introduction What is ASP.NET? Language Support ASP.NET Web Forms Introducing Web Forms Working with Server Controls Applying Styles to Controls Server Control Form Validation Web Forms User Controls Data Binding Server Controls Server-Side Data Access Data Access and Customization Working with Business Objects Authoring Custom Controls Web Forms Controls Reference Web Forms Syntax Reference ASP.NET Web Services Introducing Web Services Writing a Simple Web Service Web Service Type Marshalling Using Data in Web Services Using Objects and Intrinsics The WebService Behavior HTML Pattern Matching ASP.NET Web Applications Application Overview Using the Global.asax File Managing Application State HttpHandlers and Factories Cache Services Caching Overview Page Output Caching Page Fragment Caching Page Data Caching

Introduction to Server-Side Data Connections, Commands, and DataSets Accessing SQL-based Data Binding SQL Data to a DataGrid Performing a Parameterized Select Inserting Data in a SQL Database Updating Data in a SQL Database Deleting Data in a SQL Database Sorting Data from a SQL Database Working with Master-Detail Relationships Writing and Using Stored Procedures Accessing XML-based Data Section Summary

Introduction to Server-Side Data Data access is the heart of any real-world application, and ASP.NET provides a rich set of controls that are wellintegrated with the managed data access APIs provided in the common language runtime. This section walks through several iterations of a sample that uses the ASP.NET DataGrid control to bind to the results of SQL queries and XML data files. This section assumes some familiarity with database fundamentals and the SQL query language. Server-side data access is unique in that Web pages are basically stateless, which presents some difficult challenges when trying to perform transactions such as inserting or updating records from a set of data retrieved from a database. As you'll see in this section, the DataGrid control can help manage these challenges, allowing you to concentrate more on your application logic and less on the details of state management and event handling.

Connections, Commands, and Datasets The common language runtime provides a complete set of managed data access APIs for data-intensive application development. These APIs help to abstract the data and present it in a consistent way regardless of its actual source (SQL Server, OLEDB, XML, and so on). There are essentially three objects you will work with most often: connections, commands, and datasets. ● ●

●

Configuration Configuration Overview Configuration File Format Retrieving Configuration Deployment Deploying Applications Using the Process Model Handling Errors Security Security Overview Authentication & Authorization Windows-based Authentication Forms-based Authentication Authorizing Users and Roles User Account Impersonation Security and WebServices Localization Internationalization Overview Setting Culture and Encoding Localizing ASP.NET Applications Working with Resource Files

A connection represents a physical connection to some data store, such as SQL Server or an XML file. A command represents a directive to retrieve from (select) or manipulate (insert, update, delete) the data store. A dataset represents the actual data an application works with. Note that datasets are always disconnected from their source connection and data model and can be modified independently. However, changes to a dataset can be easily reconciled with the originating data model.

For a more detailed walkthrough of the managed data access solution in the common language runtime, please read the ADO.NET Overview section of this tutorial.

Accessing SQL-based Data An application typically needs to perform one or more select, insert, update, or delete queries to a SQL database. The following table shows an example of each of these queries. Query

Example

Simple Select

SELECT * from Employees WHERE FirstName = 'Bradley';

Join Select

SELECT * from Employees E, Managers M WHERE E.FirstName = M.FirstName;

Insert

INSERT into Employees VALUES ('123-456789','Bradley','Millington','Program Manager');

Update

UPDATE Employees SET Title = 'Development Lead' WHERE FirstName = 'Bradley';

Delete

DELETE from Employees WHERE Productivity < 10;

To give your page access to the classes you will need to perform SQL data access, you must import the System.Data and System.Data.SqlClient namespaces into your page.

Tracing Tracing Overview Trace Logging to Page Output Application-level Trace Logging Debugging The SDK Debugger

<%@ Import Namespace="System.Data" %> <%@ Import Namespace="System.Data.SqlClient" %> To perform a select query to a SQL database, you create a SqlConnection to the database passing the connection string, and then construct a SqlDataAdapter object that contains your query statement. To populate a DataSet object with the results from the query, you call the command's Fill method.

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Dim myConnection As New SqlConnection("server=(local)\NetSDK;database=pubs;Trusted_Connection=yes") Dim myCommand As New SqlDataAdapter("select * from Authors", myConnection) Dim ds As New DataSet() myCommand.Fill(ds, "Authors") VB As mentioned earlier in this section, the benefit of using a dataset is that it gives you a disconnected view of the database. You can operate on a dataset in your application, and then reconcile your changes with the actual database later. For long-running applications this is often the best approach. For Web applications, you are usually performing short operations with each request (commonly to simply display the data). You often don't need to hold a DataSet object over a series of several requests. For situations like these, you can use a SqlDataReader. A SqlDataReader provides a forward-only, read-only pointer over data retrieved from a SQL database. To use a SqlDataReader, you declare a SqlCommand instead of a SqlDataAdapter. The SqlCommand exposes an ExecuteReader method that returns a SqlDataReader. Note also that you must explicitly open and close the SqlConnection when you use a SqlCommand. After a call to ExecuteReader, the SqlDataReader can be bound to an ASP.NET server control, as you'll see in the next section.

Dim myConnection As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection("server=(local)\NetSDK;database=pubs;Trusted_Connection=yes") Dim myCommand As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand("select * from Authors", myConnection) myConnection.Open() Dim dr As SqlDataReader = myCommand.ExecuteReader() ... myConnection.Close() VB When performing commands that do not require data to be returned, such as inserts, updates, and deletes, you also use a SqlCommand. The command is issued by calling an ExecuteNonQuery method, which returns the number of rows affected. Note that the connection must be explicitly opened when you use the SqlCommand; the SqlDataAdapter automatically handles opening the connection for you.

Dim myConnection As New SqlConnection("server=(local)\NetSDK;database=pubs;Trusted_Connection=yes") Dim myCommand As New SqlCommand( _ "UPDATE Authors SET phone='(800) 555-5555' WHERE au_id = '123-456789'", _ myConnection) myCommand.Connection.Open() myCommand.ExecuteNonQuery() myCommand.Connection.Close() VB Important: Always remember to close the connection to the data model before the page finishes executing. If you do not close the connection, you might inadvertently exhaust the connection limit while waiting for the page instances to be handled by garbage collection.

Binding SQL Data to a DataGrid The following sample shows a simple select query bound to a DataGrid control. The DataGrid renders a table containing the SQL data.

VB DataGrid1.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Like the DropDownList shown in the Data Binding section, the DataGrid control supports a DataSource property that takes an IEnumerable or ICollection, as well as a DataSet. You can use a DataSet by assigning the DefaultView property of a table contained in the DataSet to the name of the table you wish to use within the DataSet. The DefaultView property represents the current state of a table within a DataSet, including any changes which have been made by application code (row deletions or value changes, for example). After setting the DataSource property, you call DataBind() to populate the control.

MyDataGrid.DataSource=ds.Tables("Authors").DefaultView MyDataGrid.DataBind() VB An alternative syntax is to specify both a DataSource and a DataMember. In this case, ASP.NET automatically gets the DefaultView for you.

MyDataGrid.DataSource=ds MyDataGrid.DataMember="Authors" MyDataGrid.DataBind() VB You can also bind directly to a SqlDataReader. In this case you are only displaying data, so the forward-only nature of the SqlDataReader is perfectly suited to this scenario, and you benefit from the performance boost that SqlDataReader provides.

VB DataGrid1.1.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Note: For the remainder of this section, only the DataSet model of data access is shown; however, any of these samples could be re-written to take advantage of SQLDataReader as well.

Performing a Parameterized Select You can also perform a parameterized select using the SqlDataAdapter object. The following sample shows how you can modify the data selected using the value posted from a select HtmlControl.

VB DataGrid2.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] The SqlDataAdapter maintains a Parameters collection that can be used to replace variable identifiers (denoted by an "@" in front of the name) with values. You add a new SqlParameter to this collection that specifies the name, type, and size of the parameter, and then set its Value property to the value of the select.

myCommand.SelectCommand.Parameters.Add(New SqlParameter("@State", SqlDbType.NVarChar,

2)) myCommand.SelectCommand.Parameters("@State").Value = MySelect.Value VB Important: Note that the DataGrid's EnableViewState property has been set to false. If the data will be populated in each request, there is no benefit to having the DataGrid store state information to be sent through a round trip with form posts. Because the DataGrid stores all of its data when maintaining state, it is important to turn it off when appropriate to improve the performance of your pages. DataGrid2.aspx statically populates the values of the select box, but this will not work well if those values ever change in the database. Because the select HtmlControl also supports an IEnumerable DataSource property, you can use a select query to dynamically populate the select box instead, which guarantees that the database and user interface are always in sync. The following sample demonstrates this process.

VB DataGrid3.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Inserting Data in a SQL Database To insert a row into the database, you can add a simple input form to the page, and execute an insert command in the form submit event handler. Just as in the previous two samples, you use the command object's Parameters collection to populate the command's values. Note that you also check to make sure the required values are not null before attempting to insert into the database. This prevents an accidental violation of the database's field constraints. You also execute the insert command inside of a try/catch block, just in case the primary key for inserted row already exists.

VB DataGrid4.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Instead of explicitly checking the input values, you could have just as easily used the validator controls provided with ASP.NET. The following sample shows how to do that. Note that using the RegEx Validator provides the additional benefit of checking the format for the author ID, zip code, and phone number fields.

VB DataGrid5.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Updating Data in a SQL Database Updating a database can often be tricky in Web applications. The DataGrid control provides some built-in support for this scenario that makes updates easier. To allow rows to be edited, the DataGrid supports an integer EditItemIndex property, which indicates which row of the grid should be editable. When this property is set, the DataGrid renders the row at that index as text input boxes instead of simple labels. A value of -1 (the default) indicates that no rows are editable. The page can enclose the DataGrid in a server-side form and get access to the edited data through the DataGrid's object model. To figure out which row should be editable, you need a way to accept some input from the user about which row they would like to edit. The DataGrid can contain an EditCommandColumn that renders links for firing three special events: EditCommand, UpdateCommand, and CancelCommand. The EditCommandColumn is

declaratively added to the DataGrid's Columns collection, as shown in the following example. On the DataGrid tag itself, you wire event handlers to each of the commands fired from the EditCommandColumn. The DataGridCommandEventArgs argument of these handlers gives you direct access to the index selected by the client, which you use to set the DataGrid's EditItemIndex. Note that you need to re-bind the DataGrid for the change to take effect, as shown in the following example.

Public Sub MyDataGrid_Edit(sender As Object, E As DataGridCommandEventArgs) MyDataGrid.EditItemIndex = E.Item.ItemIndex BindGrid() End Sub VB When a row of the DataGrid is being edited, the EditCommandColumn renders the Update and Cancel links. If the client selects Cancel, you simply set the EditItemIndex back to -1. If the client selects Update, however, you need to execute your update command to the database. Performing an update query requires that you know the primary key in the database for the row you wish to update. To support this, the DataGrid exposes a DataKeyField property that you can set to the field name for the primary key. In the event handler wired to the UpdateCommand, you can retrieve the key name from the DataGrid's DataKeys collection. You index into this collection using the ItemIndex of the event, as shown in the following example.

myCommand.Parameters("@Id").Value = MyDataGrid.DataKeys(CType(E.Item.ItemIndex, Integer)) VB At the end of the Update event handler, you set the EditItemIndex back to -1. The following sample demonstrates this code in action.

VB DataGrid6.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] One problem with the preceding example is that the primary key field (au_id) also renders as a text input box when a row is editable. You don't want the client to change this value, because you need it to determine which row to update in the database. Fortunately, you can disable this column from rendering as a text box by specifying exactly what each column looks like for the editable row. You do this by defining each row in the DataGrid's Columns collection, using the BoundColumn control to assign data fields with each column. Using this technique gives you complete control over the order of the columns, as well as their ReadOnly properties. For the au_id column you set the ReadOnly property to true. When a row is in edit mode, this column will continue to render as a Label. The following sample demonstrates this technique.

VB DataGrid7.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] BoundColumn controls aren't the only controls you can set in the DataGrid's Columns collection. You can also specify a TemplateColumn, which gives you complete control over the contents of the column. The template is just arbitrary content; you can render anything you like, including server controls, inside the DataGrid's columns. The following sample demonstrates using the TemplateColumn control to render the "State" column as a dropdown list and the "Contract" column as a check box HtmlControl. The ASP.NET data binding syntax is used to output the data field value within the template. Note that there is a bit of tricky logic to make the drop-down list and check box reflect the state of the data inside the row.

VB DataGrid8.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Just as you can place a drop-down list or check box HtmlControl in a TemplateColumn, you can also place other controls there. The following sample adds Validator controls to the columns to check the client input before attempting to perform the update.

VB DataGrid9.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Deleting Data in a SQL Database Deleting from a database is very similar to an update or insert command, but you still need a way to determine the particular row of the grid to delete. Another control that can be added to the DataGrid's Columns collection is the ButtonColumn control, which simply renders a button control. ButtonColumn supports a CommandName property that can be set to Delete. On the DataGrid, you wire an event handler to the DeleteCommand, where you perform the delete operation. Again, you use the DataKeys collection to determine the row selected by the client. The following sample demonstrates this process.

VB DataGrid10.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Sorting Data from a SQL Database A common requirement for any grid is the ability to sort the data it contains. While the DataGrid control doesn't explicitly sort its data for you, it does provide a way to call an event handler when the user clicks a column header, which you can use to sort the data. When the DataGrid's AllowSorting property is set to true, it renders hyperlinks for the column headers that fire a Sort command back to the grid. You set the OnSortCommand property of the DataGrid to the handler you want to call when the user clicks a column link. The name of the column is passed as a SortExpression property on the DataGridSortCommandEventArgs argument, which you can use to set the Sort property of the DataView bound to the grid. The following example demonstrates this process.

<script> Protected Sub MyDataGrid_Sort(Src As Object, E As DataGridSortCommandEventArgs) ... DataView Source = ds.Tables("Authors").DefaultView Source.Sort = E.SortExpression MyDataGrid.DataBind() End Sub VB The following sample shows this code in action.

VB DataGrid11.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] When using BoundColumn controls, you can explicitly set the SortExpression property for each column, as demonstrated in the following sample.

VB DataGrid12.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Working with Master-Detail Relationships Often your data model will contain relationships that cannot be represented using just a single grid. A very common Web-based interface is one in which a row of data can be selected that navigates the client to a "details" page, which displays detailed information about the selected row. To accomplish this using the DataGrid, you can add a HyperLinkColumn to the Columns collection, which specifies the details page to which the client will navigate when the link is clicked. You use the format string syntax to substitute a field value in this link, which is passed as a querystring argument. The following example demonstrates this process. On the details page, you retrieve the querystring argument and perform a join select to obtain details from the database. The following sample demonstrates this scenario.

VB DataGrid13.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Writing and Using Stored Procedures In general, performing ad hoc queries comes at the expense of performance. Using stored procedures can reduce the cost of performing heavy database operations in an application. A stored procedure is easy to create, and can even be done using a SQL statement. The following code example creates a stored procedure that simply returns a table. CREATE Procedure GetAuthors AS SELECT * FROM Authors return GO You can create stored procedures that accept parameters as well. For example: CREATE Procedure LoadPersonalizationSettings (@UserId varchar(50)) AS SELECT * FROM Personalization WHERE UserID=@UserId return GO Using a stored procedure from an ASP.NET page is just an extension of what you've learned so far about the SqlCommand object. The CommandText is just the name of the stored procedure instead of the ad hoc query text. You indicate to the SqlCommand that the CommandText is a stored procedure by setting the CommandType property.

myCommand.SelectCommand.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure VB The following sample demonstrates a call to a stored procedure to fill the DataSet.

VB DataGrid14.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Parameters to stored procedures are passed just as they are for ad hoc queries, as shown in the following samples.

VB DataGrid15.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

VB DataGrid16.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Accessing XML-based Data At the beginning of this section it was mentioned that the DataSet was designed to abstract data in a way that is independent of the actual data source. You can see this by changing the focus of your samples from SQL to XML. The DataSet supports a ReadXml method that takes a FileStream object as its parameter. The file you read in this case must contain both a schema and the data you wish to read. The DataSet expects data to be in the form, as shown in the following example. column column column column column column column column

value value value value

value value value value

Each TableName section corresponds to a single row in the table. The following sample shows reading schema and data from an XML file using the ReadXml method of the DataSet. Note that after the data is read into the DataSet it is indistinguishable from SQL data -- the DataGrid binds to it just the same, as shown in the following sample.

VB DataGrid17.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] You can also read the data and schema separately, using the ReadXmlData and ReadXmlSchema methods of the DataSet, as shown in the following sample.

VB DataGrid18.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Just as the DataSet supports reader methods for XML data, it also supports writing the data. The following sample implements a tool for selecting data from SQL and writing the result as XML data or schema text.

VB XMLGen.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Section Summary 1. The common language runtime's managed data access APIs abstract data and present it in a consistent way regardless of its actual source (SQL Server, OLEDB, XML, and so on). 2. To give your page access to the classes you will need to perform SQL data access, you must import the System.Data and System.Data.SqlClient namespaces into your page. 3. Populating a dataset from a SQL query involves creating a SqlConnection, associating a SqlDataAdapter object with the connection that contains your query statement, and filling the dataset from the command. 4. The DataGrid control supports a DataSource property that takes an IEnumerable (or ICollection) type. You can set this to the result of a SQL query by assigning the DataSet's DefaultView property, which is of type DataView. 5. The SqlDataAdapter maintains a Parameters collection that can be used to replace variable identifiers (denoted by an "@" in front of the name) with values. 6. When performing commands that do not require data to be returned, such as inserts, updates, and deletes, you use a SqlCommand instead of the SqlDataAdapter. The command is issued by calling an ExecuteNonQuery method, which returns the number of rows affected. 7. The SqlConnection must be explicitly opened when you use the SqlCommand (the SqlDataAdapter automatically handles opening the connection for you). Always remember to close the SqlConnection to the data model before the page finishes executing. If you do not close the connection, you migh inadvertantly exhaust the connection limit while waiting for the page instances to be released to garbage collection. 8. To allow rows to be edited, the DataGrid supports an integer EditItemIndex property, which indicates which row of the grid should be editable. When this property is set, the DataGrid renders the row at that index as text input boxes instead of simple labels. 9. The DataGrid exposes a DataKeyField property that you can set to the field name for the primary key. In the event handler wired to the UpdateCommand, you can retrieve the key name from the DataGrid's DataKeys collection. 10. Using BoundColumn controls in the DataGrid gives you complete control over the order of the columns, as well as their ReadOnly properties. 11. Using TemplateColumn controls in the DataGrid gives you complete control over the contents of the column. 12. The ButtonColumn control can be used to simply render a button control in each row for that column, which can be associated with an event. 13. A HyperLinkColumn can be added to the DataGrid's Columns collection, which supports navigating to another page when the link is clicked. 14. When the DataGrid's AllowSorting property is set to true, it renders hyperlinks for the column headers that fire a Sort command back to the grid. You set the OnSortCommand property of the DataGrid to the handler you want to call when the user clicks a column link. 15. The DataSet supports ReadXml, ReadXmlData, and ReadXmlSchema methods that take a FileStream as a parameter, which can be used to populate a DataSet from an XML file. 16. Using stored procedures can reduce the cost of performing heavy database operations in an application.

Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Data Access and Customization Getting Started Introduction What is ASP.NET? Language Support ASP.NET Web Forms Introducing Web Forms Working with Server Controls Applying Styles to Controls Server Control Form Validation Web Forms User Controls Data Binding Server Controls Server-Side Data Access Data Access and Customization Working with Business Objects Authoring Custom Controls Web Forms Controls Reference Web Forms Syntax Reference ASP.NET Web Services Introducing Web Services Writing a Simple Web Service Web Service Type Marshalling Using Data in Web Services Using Objects and Intrinsics The WebService Behavior HTML Pattern Matching ASP.NET Web Applications Application Overview Using the Global.asax File Managing Application State HttpHandlers and Factories Cache Services Caching Overview Page Output Caching Page Fragment Caching Page Data Caching Configuration Configuration Overview Configuration File Format Retrieving Configuration Deployment Deploying Applications Using the Process Model Handling Errors Security Security Overview Authentication & Authorization Windows-based Authentication Forms-based Authentication Authorizing Users and Roles User Account Impersonation Security and WebServices Localization Internationalization Overview Setting Culture and Encoding Localizing ASP.NET Applications Working with Resource Files

Introduction to Templated Controls Handling Postbacks from a Template Using Select and Edit Templates Finding a Control Inside a Template Section Summary

Introduction to Templated Controls While the DataGrid server control demonstrated in the previous section is suitable for many Web application scenarios where a grid-like representation of data is appropriate, many times the presentation of data needs to be much richer. ASP.NET offers two controls, DataList and Repeater, that give you greater flexibility over the rendering of list-like data. These controls are template-based, and so have no default rendering of their own. The way data is rendered is completely determined by the your implementation of the control's templates, which describe how to present data items. Like the DataGrid control, DataList and Repeater support a DataSource property, which can be set to any ICollection, IEnumerable, or IListSource type. The data in this DataSource is bound to the control using its DataBind method. Once the data is bound, the format of each data item is described by a template. The ItemTemplate property controls the rendering of each item in the DataSource collection. Inside an ItemTemplate, you can define any arbitrary presentation code (HTML or otherwise). Using the ASP.NET data binding syntax, you can insert values from the data bound to the DataList or Repeater control, as shown in the following example. Hello <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "name") %> ! The Container represents the first control in the immediate hierarchy that supports the System.Web.UI.INamingContainer marker interface. In this case, the Container resolves to an object of type System.Web.UI.WebControls.RepeaterItem, which has a DataItem property. As the Repeater iterates over the DataSource collection, the DataItem contains the current item in this collection. For example, if the data source is set to an ArrayList of Employee objects, the DataItem is of type Employees. When bound to a DataView, the DataItem is of type DataRowView. The following example demonstrates a Repeater control bound to a DataView (returned from a SQL query). HeaderTemplate and FooterTemplate have also been defined and render at the beginning and end of the list, respectively.

VB DataList1.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] The Repeater control just iterates over the bound data, rendering the ItemTemplate once for each item in the DataSource collection. It does not render anything besides the elements contained in its templates. While the Repeater is a general purpose iterator, the DataList provides some additional features for controlling the layout of the list. Unlike the Repeater, DataList renders additonal elements, like table rows and cells and spans containing style attributes, outside of the template definition to enable this richer formatting. For example, DataList supports RepeatColumns and RepeatDirection properties that specify whether data should be rendered in multiple columns, and in which direction (vertical or horizontal) the data items should be rendered. DataList also supports style attributes, as shown in the following example. " RepeatColumns="2" RepeatDirection="Horizontal" ItemStyle-Font-Size="10pt" ItemStyle-Font-Name="Verdana" >

Tracing Tracing Overview Trace Logging to Page Output Application-level Trace Logging Debugging The SDK Debugger Performance Performance Overview Performance Tuning Tips Measuring Performance ASP to ASP.NET Migration Migration Overview Syntax and Semantics Language Compatibility COM Interoperability Transactions Sample Applications A Personalized Portal An E-Commerce Storefront A Class Browser Application IBuySpy.com

... Note: The remainder of this section concentrates on the many features of the DataList control. For more information about the Repeater control, refer to the Repeater topic in the Web Forms Controls Reference section of this tutorial. The following sample demonstrates the use of the DataList control. Note that the look of the data items has been changed from the previous example, simply by changing the contents of the control's ItemTemplate property. The RepeatDirection and RepeatColumns properties determine how the ItemTemplates are laid out.

VB Datalist2.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] The following example further demonstrates the infinite flexibility of templates by changing the ItemTemplate yet again. This time, one of the DataItem values has been substituted for the "src" attribute of an tag. The format String parameter of DataBinder.Eval has also been used to substitute a DataItem value in the query string for a URL.

Get URL for this page

VB Datalist3.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Handling Postbacks from a Template As in the DataGrid, you can fire a command from inside a DataList template that is passed to an event handler wired to the DataList itself. For example, a LinkButton inside the ItemTemplate might fire a Select command. By setting the OnSelectedIndexChanged property of the DataList, you can call an event handler in response to this command. The following example demonstrates this process. <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "title") %> The following sample demonstrates this code in action. In the MyDataList_Select event handler, you populate several other server controls with the details about the particular selected item.

VB Datalist4.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Note that while the DataList recognizes a few special commands such as Select and Edit/Update/Cancel, the

command string fired inside a template can be any arbitrary string. For all commands, the DataList's OnItemCommand is fired. You can wire this event to a handler as in the previous example; the following example shows how to do this.

<script runat="server"> Protected Sub MyDataList_ItemCommand(Sender As Object, E As DataListCommandEventArgs) Dim Command As String = E.CommandName Select Case Command Case "Discuss" ShowDiscussions(E.Item.DataItem) Case "Ratings" ShowRatings(E.Item.DataItem) End Select End Sub View Ratings | View Discussions VB Note that because more than one command can fire this event handler, you must employ a switch statement to determine the particular command that was fired. The following sample demonstrates this code in action.

VB Datalist5.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Using Select and Edit Templates In addition to handling the Select command using a page-level event handler, the DataList can respond to this event internally. If a SelectedItemTemplate is defined for the DataList, the DataList renders this template for the item that fired the Select command. The following example uses the SelectedItemTemplate to make the title of the selected book bold.

VB Datalist6.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] DataList also supports an EditItemTemplate for rendering an item whose index is equal to the DataList's EditItemIndex property. For details about how editing and updating works, refer to the Updating Data topic of the Data Access section of this tutorial.

VB Datalist7.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Finding a Control Inside a Template Sometimes it is necessary to locate a control contained inside a template. If a control is given an ID in a template, that control can be retrieved from its container (the first control in the parent hierarchy that supports INamingContainer). In this case, the container is the DataListItem control. Note that even though there are several controls with the same ID (by virtue of the DataList's repetition), each is contained logically in the namespace of the DataListItem container control. You can go through the DataList's Items collection to retrieve the DataListItem for a given index, and then call the DataListItem's FindControl method (inherited from the base Control class) to retrieve a control with a particular ID.

<script runat="server"> Public Sub Page_Load(sender As Object, E As EventArgs)) ' set datasource and call databind here For I=0 To MyDataList.Items.Count-1 Dim IsChecked As String = MyDataList.Items(i).FindControl("Save").Checked.ToString() If IsChecked = "True" Then ... End If Next End Sub Save to Favorites VB The following sample demonstrates this code in action.

VB Datalist8.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Section Summary 1. The DataList and Repeater controls provide developers fine-tuned control over the rendering of databound lists. 2. Rendering of bound data is controlled using a template, such as the HeaderTemplate, FooterTemplate, or ItemTemplate. 3. The Repeater control is a general-purpose iterator, and does not insert anything in its rendering that is not contained in a template. 4. The DataList control offers more control over the layout and style of items, and outputs its own rendering code for formatting. 5. The DataList supports the Select, Edit/Update/Cancel, and Item Command events, which can be handled at the page level by wiring event handlers to the DataList's Command events.

6. DataList supports a SelectedItemTemplate and EditItemTemplate for control over the rendering of a selected or editable item. 7. Controls can be programmatically retrieved from a template using the Control.FindControl method. This should be called on a DataListItem retrieved from the DataList's Items collection.

Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Working With Business Objects Getting Started Introduction What is ASP.NET? Language Support ASP.NET Web Forms Introducing Web Forms Working with Server Controls Applying Styles to Controls Server Control Form Validation Web Forms User Controls Data Binding Server Controls Server-Side Data Access Data Access and Customization Working with Business Objects Authoring Custom Controls Web Forms Controls Reference Web Forms Syntax Reference ASP.NET Web Services Introducing Web Services Writing a Simple Web Service Web Service Type Marshalling Using Data in Web Services Using Objects and Intrinsics The WebService Behavior HTML Pattern Matching ASP.NET Web Applications Application Overview Using the Global.asax File Managing Application State HttpHandlers and Factories Cache Services Caching Overview Page Output Caching Page Fragment Caching Page Data Caching Configuration Configuration Overview Configuration File Format Retrieving Configuration Deployment Deploying Applications Using the Process Model Handling Errors Security Security Overview Authentication & Authorization Windows-based Authentication Forms-based Authentication Authorizing Users and Roles User Account Impersonation Security and WebServices Localization Internationalization Overview Setting Culture and Encoding Localizing ASP.NET Applications Working with Resource Files

The Application /Bin Directory Importing Business Objects A Simple Two-Tier Web Forms Page A Simple Three-Tier Web Forms Page Section Summary

Encapsulating logic in business components is an essential part of any real-world application, Web-based or otherwise. In ASP.NET, business objects are the building blocks for multi-tiered Web applications, such as those with a layer for data access or common application rules. This section demonstrates how to write some simple components and include them in your application's Web Forms pages.

The Application /Bin Directory A problem with using the COM model for Web application components is that those components must be registered (typically using the regsvr32 tool) before they can be used from a traditional ASP application. Remote administration of these types of applications is often not possible, because the registration tool must be run locally on the server. To make matters more difficult, these components remain locked on disk once they are loaded by an application, and the entire Web server must be stopped before these components can be replaced or removed. ASP.NET attempts to solve these problems by allowing components to be placed in a well-known directory, to be automatically found at run time. This well-known directory is always named /bin, and is located immediately under the root directory for the application (a virtual directory defined by Internet Information Services (IIS)). The benefit is that no registration is required to make components available to the ASP.NET Framework application -components can be deployed by simply copying to the /bin directory or performing an FTP file transfer. In addition to providing a zero-registration way to deploy compiled components, ASP.NET does not require these components to remain locked on disk at run time. Behind the scenes, ASP.NET duplicates the assemblies found in /bin and loads these "shadow" copies instead. The original components can be replaced even while the Web server is still running, and changes to the /bin directory are automatically picked up by the runtime. When a change is detected, ASP.NET allows currently executing requests to complete, and directs all new incoming requests to the application that uses the new component or components.

Importing Business Objects At its most basic level, a business component is just a class for which you can create an instance from a Web Forms page that imports it. The following example defines a simple HelloWorld class. The class has one public constructor (which is executed when an instance of the class is first created), a single String property called FirstName, and a SayHello method that prints a greeting using the value of the FirstName property.

Imports System Imports System.Text Namespace HelloWorld Public Class HelloObj Private _name As String Public Sub New MyBase.New() _name = Nothing End Sub Public Property FirstName As String Get Return(_name) End get Set _name = value End Set End Property Public Function SayHello() As String Dim sb As New StringBuilder("Hello ") If (_name <> Nothing) Then sb.Append(_name) Else sb.Append("World") End If sb.Append("!") Return(sb.ToString()) End Function

Tracing Tracing Overview Trace Logging to Page Output Application-level Trace Logging Debugging The SDK Debugger Performance Performance Overview Performance Tuning Tips Measuring Performance ASP to ASP.NET Migration Migration Overview Syntax and Semantics Language Compatibility COM Interoperability Transactions Sample Applications A Personalized Portal An E-Commerce Storefront A Class Browser Application IBuySpy.com

End Class End Namespace VB To compile this class, the C# compiler (Csc.exe) is run from the command line. The /t option tells the compiler to build a library (DLL), and the /out option tells the compiler where to place the resulting assembly. In this case, the /bin directory for the application is directly under the "aspplus" vroot of this tutorial, and it is assumed this command is being run from the sample directory, that is, ...\QuickStart\AspPlus\Samples\WebForms\Busobjs. csc /t:library /out:..\..\..\..\bin\HelloObj.dll HelloObj.cs For Visual Basic, the equivalent compilation command is: vbc /t:library /out:..\..\..\..\bin\HelloObjVB.dll HelloObj.vb For JScript, the equivalent compilation command is: jsc /out:..\..\..\..\bin\HelloObjJS.dll HelloObj.js The component is now available to any Web Forms page in the application that needs to use it. The following HelloObj.aspx example illustrates this functionality.

Get URL for this page

VB HelloObj.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Note the Import directive at the top of the page that specifies the namespace to include. Once the namespace is included using this directive, the class can be used from within the Web Forms page. Because the assembly is preloaded by the ASP.NET runtime, only a simple namespace import is required to make the component available. The following code example the Import directive. <%@ Import Namespace="HelloWorld" %> By default, ASP.NET loads all assemblies from the /bin directory when the application is started. The assemblies to load are specifed through the configuration system. For details, see the Configuration Overview section. Additional assemblies can be imported into an application using configuration as well. For example: Note: Each assembly loaded from /bin is limited in scope to the application in which it is running. This means that peer applications could potentially use different assemblies with the same class or namespace names, without conflicting.

A Simple Two-Tier Web Forms Page The classic use for an external component is to perform data access. This simplifies the code in your page, improving readability and separating your user interface (UI) logic from the system functionality. The following example demonstrates a simple two-tiered Web Forms page that uses a data access component to retrieve product information.

VB TwoTier.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] The data access component takes a single parameter to its constructor specifying the connection string to the product database. The Web Forms page calls the component's GetCategories method to populate a drop-down list, and calls the component's GetProductsForCategory method to display the products for the category selected by the user.

A Simple Three-Tier Web Forms Page A three-tiered application model extends the two-tiered scenario to include business rules between the UI and data access logic. This model allows UI developers to work with a higher level of abstraction rather than directly manipulating data through low-level data access component APIs. The middle business component typically enforces business rules and ensures that the relationships and primary key constraints of the database are honored. The following example uses the middle component to calculate a discount based on a two-digit Vendor ID entered by the client.

VB ThreeTier.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Section Summary 1. The ASP.NET runtime finds business objects (local assemblies) in a well-known /bin directory, directly under the application root. The /bin directory offers the following advantages: ❍

❍

❍

No registration required. No registration is required to make an assembly available to pages in the application. It is available by virtue of its location in the /bin directory. Compiled code can be deployed by simply copying or FTPing to this location. No server restart required. When any part of an ASP.NET Framework application is changed (for example, when a DLL in /bin is replaced), new requests immediately begin execution against the changed file or files. Currently executing requests are allowed to complete before the old application is gracefully torn down. The Web server does not require a restart when you change your application, even when replacing compiled code. No namespace conflicts. Each assembly loaded from /bin is limited in scope to the application in which it is running. This means that peer applications could potentially use different assemblies with the same class or namespace names, without conflicting.

2. Classes in an assembly are made available to a page in the application using an Import directive within the .aspx file. 3. Two-tiered applications simplify the code in a page, improving readability and separating user interface (UI) logic from system functionality. 4. Three-tiered applications extend the two-tiered model to enable UI developers to work with a higher level of abstraction. The middle business component typically enforces business rules and ensures that the relationships and primary key constraints of the database are honored.

Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Authoring Custom Controls Getting Started Introduction What is ASP.NET? Language Support ASP.NET Web Forms Introducing Web Forms Working with Server Controls Applying Styles to Controls Server Control Form Validation Web Forms User Controls Data Binding Server Controls Server-Side Data Access Data Access and Customization Working with Business Objects Authoring Custom Controls Web Forms Controls Reference Web Forms Syntax Reference ASP.NET Web Services Introducing Web Services Writing a Simple Web Service Web Service Type Marshalling Using Data in Web Services Using Objects and Intrinsics The WebService Behavior HTML Pattern Matching ASP.NET Web Applications Application Overview Using the Global.asax File Managing Application State HttpHandlers and Factories Cache Services Caching Overview Page Output Caching Page Fragment Caching Page Data Caching Configuration Configuration Overview Configuration File Format Retrieving Configuration Deployment Deploying Applications Using the Process Model Handling Errors Security Security Overview Authentication & Authorization Windows-based Authentication Forms-based Authentication Authorizing Users and Roles User Account Impersonation Security and WebServices Localization Internationalization Overview Setting Culture and Encoding Localizing ASP.NET Applications Working with Resource Files

Developing a Simple Custom Control Defining Simple Properties Defining Class Properties Retrieving Inner Content Developing a Composite Control Handling Events in a Composite Control Raising Events from a Composite Control Maintaining State Developing a Custom (Non-Composite) Control that Handles Post-back Data Generating Client-side JavaScript for Custom Post-back Developing a Templated Control Developing a Templated Databound Control Overriding Control Parsing Defining a Custom Control Builder

This section of the QuickStart demonstrates how advanced developers can write their own ASP.NET server controls that work within the ASP.NET page framework. By writing your own custom ASP.NET server controls, you can encapsulate custom user interface and other functionality in controls that can be reused on ASP.NET pages. The QuickStart provides an introduction to authoring custom controls through hands-on examples. For more information about control authoring, see Developing ASP.NET Server Controls in the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK documentation. Note: The controls described in this section might not work correctly at design time in a forms designer such as Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, although they work properly at run time on ASP.NET pages. To work in a designer, a control needs to apply design-time attributes not described here. For details about the design-time attributes you need to apply, see Design-Time Attributes for Components in the SDK documentation.

Developing a Simple Custom Control It is easy to start authoring your own ASP.NET server controls. To create a simple custom control, all you have to do is to define a class that derives from System.Web.UI.Control and override its Render method. The Render method takes one argument of type System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter. The HTML that your control wants to send to the client is passed as a string argument to the Write method of HtmlTextWriter. The following example demonstrates a simple control that renders a message string.

VB Simple.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Defining Simple Properties Properties are like "smart" fields that have accessor methods. You should expose properties instead of public fields from your controls because properties allow data hiding, can be versioned, and are supported by visual designers. Properties have get/set accessor methods that set and retrieve properties, and allow additional program logic to be performed if needed. The following sample shows how to add simple properties that correspond to primitive data types such as integer, Boolean, and string. The sample defines three properties - Message is of type string, MessageSize is of type enumeration, and Iterations is of type integer. Note the page syntax for setting simple and enumeration properties.

Tracing Tracing Overview Trace Logging to Page Output Application-level Trace Logging Debugging The SDK Debugger

VB SimpleProperty.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Performance Performance Overview Performance Tuning Tips Measuring Performance ASP to ASP.NET Migration Migration Overview Syntax and Semantics Language Compatibility COM Interoperability Transactions Sample Applications A Personalized Portal An E-Commerce Storefront A Class Browser Application IBuySpy.com Get URL for this page

Defining Class Properties If a class A has a property whose type is class B, then the properties of B (if any) are called subproperties of A. The following sample defines a custom control SimpleSubProperty that has a property of type Format. Format is a class that has two primitive properties - Color and Size, which in turn become subproperties of SimpleSubProperty.

VB SimpleSubProperty.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Note that ASP.NET has a special syntax for setting subproperties. The following code example shows how to declaratively set the Format.Color and Format.Size subproperties on SimpleSubProperty. The "-" syntax denotes a subproperty. <SimpleControlSamples:SimpleSubProperty Message="Hello There" Format-Color="red" Format-Size="3" runat=server/>

Retrieving Inner Content Every control has a Controls property that it inherits from System.Web.UI.Control. This is a collection property that denotes the child controls (if any) of a control. If a control is not marked with the ParseChildrenAttribute or marked with ParseChildrenAttribute(ChildrenAsProperties = false), the ASP.NET page framework applies the following parsing logic when the control is used declarartively on a page. If the parser encounters nested controls within the control's tags, it creates instances of them and adds them to the Controls property of the control. Literal text between tags is added as a LiteralControl. Any other nested elements generate a parser error. The following sample shows a custom control, SimpleInnerContent, that renders text added between its tags by checking if a LiteralControl has been added to its Controls collection. If so, it retrieves the Text property of the LiteralControl, and appends it to its output string.

VB SimpleInnerContent.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Note: If your custom control derives from WebControl, it will not have the parsing logic described in the sample, because WebControl is marked with ParseChildrenAttribute(ChildrenAsProperties = true), which results in a different parsing logic. For more information about the ParseChildrenAttribute, see the SDK documentation.

Developing a Composite Control You can author new controls by combining existing controls using class composition. Composite controls are equivalent to user controls that are authored using ASP.NET page syntax. The main difference between user controls and composite controls is that user controls are persisted as .ascx text files, whereas composite controls

are compiled and persisted in assemblies. The key steps in developing a composite control are: ●

●

Override the protected CreateChildControls method inherited from Control to create instances of child controls and add them to the Controls collection. If new instances of your composite control will repeatedly be created on a page, implement the System.Web.UI.INamingContainer interface. This is a tagging interface that has no methods. When it is implemented by a control, the ASP.NET page framework creates a new naming scope under that control. This ensures that the child controls will have unique IDs in the hierarchical tree of controls.

You do not have to override the Render method because child controls provide rendering logic. You can expose properties that synthesize properties of the child controls. The following sample defines a composite control, Composition1, that combines a System.Web.UI.LiteralControl and a System.Web.UI WebControls.TextBox. Composition1 exposes a custom property, Value, of type integer, that maps to the Text property of TextBox.

VB Composition1.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Handling Events in a Composite Control A composite control can handle events raised by its child controls. This is accomplished by providing event handling methods and attaching delegates to the events raised by the child controls. The following sample shows a composite control, Composition2, that adds two button controls (named Add and Subtract) to the composite control from the previous example and provides event handling methods for the Click events of the buttons. These methods increment and decrement the Value property of Composition2. The CreateChildControls method of Composition2 creates instances of event handlers (delegates) that reference these methods, and attaches the delegates to the Click events of the Button instances. The end result is a control that does its own event handling - when the Add button is clicked, the value in the text box is incremented, and when the Subtract button is clicked, the value is decremented.

VB Composition2.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Raising Custom Events from a Composite Control A composite control can define custom events that it raises in response to events raised by its child controls. The following example shows a composite control, Composition3, that raises a custom event, Change, in response to the TextChanged event of the TextBox child control. This is accomplished as follows: ●

The custom Change event is defined using the standard event pattern. (This pattern includes the definition of a protected OnChange method that raises the Change event.)

Public Event Change(Sender as Object, E as EventArgs) Protected Sub OnChange(e As EventArgs) Change(Me, e) End Sub VB

●

An event-handling method is defined for the TextChanged event of TextBox. This method raises the Change event by invoking the OnChange method.

Private Sub TextBox_Change(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) OnChange(EventArgs.Empty) End Sub VB ●

The CreateChildControls method creates an instance of an event handler that references the above method, and attaches the event handler to the TextChanged event of the TextBox instance.

Protected Overrides Sub CreateChildControls() ... Dim box As New TextBox() AddHandler Box.TextChanged, AddressOf TextBox_Change ... End Sub VB The Change event can be handled by a page that hosts the control, as shown in the following sample. In the sample, the page provides an event-handling method for the Change event that sets the Value property to zero if the number entered by the user is negative.

VB Composition3.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Maintaining State Every Web Forms control has a State property (inherited from Control) that enables it to participate in State management. The type of State is Sytem.Web.UI.StateBag, which is a data structure equivalent to a hashtable. A control can save data in State as key/value pairs. State is persisted to a string variable by the ASP.NET page framework and makes a round trip to the client as a hidden variable. Upon postback, the page framework parses the input string from the hidden variable and populates the State property of each control in the control hierarchy of a page. A control can restore its state (set properties and fields to their values before postback) using the State property. Control developers should be aware that there is a performance overhead in sending data by round trip to the client, and be judicious about what they save in State. The following code example shows a property that is saved in State.

Public Property Text As String Get Return CType(State("Text"), String)) End Get Set State("Text") = Value End Set End Property VB The following sample shows a custom control, Label, that has two properties, Text and FontSize, that are saved in State. The ASP.NET page that uses Label contains buttons that have event handlers to increase the font size of the text in Label when a button is clicked. Thus the font size increases every time a button is clicked. This is possible only due to state management - Label needs to know what the font size was before postback in order to render the next larger font size after postback.

VB Label.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Developing a Custom (Non-Composite) Control that Handles Postback Data You authored a simple custom control at the beginning of this QuickStart. The following example demonstrates a custom control that does something more meaningful - it renders an input box, and reads in data entered by the user. A control that examines postback (input) data must implement the System.Web.UI.IPostBackDataHandler interface. This signals to the ASP.NET page framework that a control should participate in postback data handling. The page framework passes input data to the LoadPostData method of this interface as key/value pairs. In its implementation of this method, the control can examine the input data and update its properties as shown below.

Private _value As Integer = 0 Public Function LoadPostData(postDataKey As String, values As NameValueCollection) As Boolean _value = Int32.Parse(values(Me.UniqueID)) Return(False) End Function VB The following sample defines a custom control, NonComposition1, that implements IPostBackDataHandler and has one property, Value. The control renders an HTML input box whose text attribute is the string representation of Value. The property is set by examining postback input data. The page that uses NonComposition1 also has two buttons that have event handlers to increment and decrement the Value property of NonComposition1.

VB NonComposition1.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Generating Client-side JavaScript for Custom Postback If a control wants to capture postback events (form submissions from a client), it must implement the System.Web.UI.IPostBackEventHandler interface. This signals to the ASP.NET page framework that a control wants to be notified of a postback event. The RaisePostBackEvent method allows the control to handle the event, and to raise other events. Additionally, the ASP.NET page framework has a custom event architecture that allows a control to generate client-side JavaScript that initiates custom postback. Normally, postback is initiated by only a few elements such as a Submit button or an Image button. However, by emitting client-side JavaScript, a control can also initiate postback from other HTML elements. The following example defines a custom control, NonComposition2, that builds on the previous example, NonComposition1. In addition to the interface provided by NonComposition1, it renders two HtmlButtons that generate client-side JavaScript to cause postback when clicked. The name attributes of these buttons are Add and Subtract. The name attribute is passed as a string argument to RaisePostBackEvent by the page framework. NonComposition2 implements RaisePostBackEvent to increment the Value property if Add is clicked and to decrement Value if Subtract is clicked, as shown below.

Public Sub RaisePostBackEvent(eventArgument As String) If eventArgument = "Add" Then Me.Value = Me.Value + 1 Else Me.Value = Me.Value - 1 End If

End Sub VB The user interface that is presented to the client is identical to that in the previous example; however, the entire UI is rendered by one custom control that also handles the postback events. The page developer can simply add NonComposition2 to the page, without providing any event handling logic. The following sample presents this code in action.

VB NonComposition2.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Developing a Templated Control The ASP.NET page framework allows control developers to author controls that separate the user interface from the control logic through the use of templates. Page developers can customize the presentation of the control by providing the UI as parameters between template tags. Templated controls have one or more properties of type System.Web.UI.ITemplate, as shown in the following example.

Public Property MessageTemplate As ITemplate VB The attribute (in square brackets above) specifies the type of the container (parent) control. The ITemplate interface has one method, InstantiateIn, that creates a control instance dynamically. This is invoked on the ITemplate property in the CreateChildControls method, as shown in the following example.

Protected Overrides Sub CreateChildControls() If MessageTemplate <> Null Then MessageTemplate.InstantiateIn(Me) End if ... End Sub VB The following sample shows a simple templated control and an ASP.NET page that uses it.

VB Template1.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Developing a Templated Databound Control The following sample shows a more complex use of templates to create a databound control. The Repeater control defined in this example is similar to the System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater control.

VB Repeater1.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] The following sample modifies the preceding sample so that a page consumer can walk its Items collection during postback to pull out values from it.

VB Repeater2.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Overriding Control Parsing As you saw in Retrieving Inner Content , if a control A has nested controls within its control tags on a page, the page parser adds instances of those controls to A's Controls collection. This is done by invoking the AddSubParsedObject method of A. Every control inherits this method from Control; the default implementation simply inserts a child control into the control hierarchy tree. A control can override the default parsing logic by overriding the AddSubParsedObject method. Note that this discussion is somewhat simplified; more details are given in the next example. The following sample defines a custom control, CustomParse1, that overrides the default parsing logic. When a child control of a certain type is parsed, it adds it to a collection. The rendering logic of CustomParse1 is based on the number of items in that collection. A simple custom control, Item, is also defined in the sample.

VB CustomParse1.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Note: If your custom control derives from WebControl, it will not have the parsing logic described in the sample, because WebControl is marked with ParseChildrenAttribute(ChildrenAsProperties = true), which results in a different parsing logic. For more information about the ParseChildrenAttribute, see the SDK documentation. The Retrieving Inner Content topic also describes this issue in more detail.

Defining a Custom Control Builder The ASP.NET page framework uses classes called control builders to process the declarations within control tags on a page. Every Web Forms control is associated with a default control builder class, System.Web.UI.ControlBuilder. The default control builder adds a child control to the Controls collection for every nested control that it encounters within control tags. Additionally, it adds Literal controls for text between nested control tags. You can override this default behavior by associating a custom control builder class with your control. This is done by applying a control builder attribute to your control, as shown in the following example.

Public Class _ CustomParse2VB : Inherits Control VB The element in square brackets above is a common language runtime attribute that associates the CustomParse2ControlBuilder class with the CustomParse2 control. You can define your own custom control builder by deriving from ControlBuilder and overriding its methods.

The following sample defines a custom control builder that overrides the GetChildControlType method inherited from ControlBuilder. This method returns the type of the control to be added and can be used to decide which controls will be added. In the example, the control builder will add a child control only if the tag name is "customitem". The code for the control is very similar to the previous example, except for the addition of the custom attribute.

VB CustomParse2.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Web Forms Controls Reference Getting Started Introduction What is ASP.NET? Language Support ASP.NET Web Forms Introducing Web Forms Working with Server Controls Applying Styles to Controls Server Control Form Validation Web Forms User Controls Data Binding Server Controls Server-Side Data Access Data Access and Customization Working with Business Objects Authoring Custom Controls Web Forms Controls Reference Web Forms Syntax Reference ASP.NET Web Services Introducing Web Services Writing a Simple Web Service Web Service Type Marshalling Using Data in Web Services Using Objects and Intrinsics The WebService Behavior HTML Pattern Matching ASP.NET Web Applications Application Overview Using the Global.asax File Managing Application State HttpHandlers and Factories Cache Services Caching Overview Page Output Caching Page Fragment Caching Page Data Caching Configuration Configuration Overview Configuration File Format Retrieving Configuration Deployment Deploying Applications Using the Process Model Handling Errors Security Security Overview Authentication & Authorization Windows-based Authentication Forms-based Authentication Authorizing Users and Roles User Account Impersonation Security and WebServices

System.Web.UI.HtmlControls System.Web.UI.WebControls

System.Web.UI.HtmlControls HTML server controls are HTML elements exposed to the server so you can program against them. HTML server controls expose an object model that maps very closely to the HTML elements that they render. HtmlAnchor

HtmlButton

HtmlForm

HtmlGenericControl

HtmlImage

HtmlInputButton (Button)

HtmlInputButton (Reset)

HtmlInputButton (Submit)

HtmlInputCheckBox

HtmlInputFile

HtmlInputHidden

HtmlInputImage

HtmlInputText HtmlInputRadioButton (Password)

HtmlInputText (Text)

HtmlSelect

HtmlTable

HtmlTableRow

HtmlTextArea

HtmlTableCell

System.Web.UI.WebControls Web server controls are ASP.NET server controls with an abstract, strongly-typed object model. Web server controls include not only form-type controls such as buttons and text boxes, but also special-purpose controls such as a calendar. Web server controls are more abstract than HTML server controls, in that their object model does not necessarily reflect HTML syntax. AdRotator

Button

Calendar

CheckBoxList

CompareValidator

CustomValidator DataGrid

DataList

DropDownList

HyperLink

Image

ImageButton

Label

LinkButton

ListBox

Panel

PlaceHolder

RadioButton

RadioButtonList

RangeValidator

RegularExpressionValidator Repeater

RequiredFieldValidator

Table

TableCell

TextBox

TableRow

CheckBox

ValidationSummary XML

Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Web Forms Syntax Reference Getting Started Introduction What is ASP.NET? Language Support ASP.NET Web Forms Introducing Web Forms Working with Server Controls Applying Styles to Controls Server Control Form Validation Web Forms User Controls Data Binding Server Controls Server-Side Data Access Data Access and Customization Working with Business Objects Authoring Custom Controls Web Forms Controls Reference Web Forms Syntax Reference ASP.NET Web Services Introducing Web Services Writing a Simple Web Service Web Service Type Marshalling Using Data in Web Services Using Objects and Intrinsics The WebService Behavior HTML Pattern Matching ASP.NET Web Applications Application Overview Using the Global.asax File Managing Application State HttpHandlers and Factories Cache Services Caching Overview Page Output Caching Page Fragment Caching Page Data Caching Configuration Configuration Overview Configuration File Format Retrieving Configuration Deployment Deploying Applications Using the Process Model Handling Errors Security Security Overview Authentication & Authorization Windows-based Authentication Forms-based Authentication Authorizing Users and Roles User Account Impersonation

ASP.NET Web Forms Syntax Elements Rendering Code Syntax Declaration Code Syntax ASP.NET Server Control Syntax ASP.NET Html Server Control Syntax Databinding Syntax Object Tag Syntax Server Side Comment Syntax Server Side Include Syntax

ASP.NET Web Forms Syntax Elements An ASP.NET Web Forms page is a declarative text file with an .aspx file name extension. In addition to static content, you can use eight distinct syntax markup elements. This section of the QuickStart reviews each of these syntax elements and provides examples demonstrating their use.

Rendering Code Syntax: <% %> and <%= %> Code rendering blocks are denoted with <% ... %> elements, allow you to custom-control content emission, and execute during the render phase of Web Forms page execution. The following example demonstrates how you can use them to loop over HTML content.

<% For I=0 To 7 %> Hello World!
<% Next %> VB

VB Reference1.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Code enclosed by <% ... %> is just executed, while expressions that include an equal sign, <%= ... %>, are evaluated and the result is emitted as content. Therefore <%="Hello World" %> renders the same thing as the C# code <% Response.Write("Hello World"); %>. Note: For languages that utilize marks to end or separate statements (for example, the semicolon (;) in C#), it is important to place those marks correctly depending on how your code should be rendered. C# code <% Response.Write("Hello World"); %>

A semicolon is necessary to end the statement.

<%="Hello World"; %>

Wrong: Would result in "Response.Write("Hello World";);".

<%="Hello World" %>

A semicolon is not necessary.

Security and WebServices Localization Internationalization Overview Setting Culture and Encoding Localizing ASP.NET Applications Working with Resource Files

Declaration Code Syntax: <script runat="server"> Code declaration blocks define member variables and methods that will be compiled into the generated Page class. These blocks can be used to author page/navigation logic. The following example demonstrates how a Subtract method can be declared within a <script runat="server"> block, and then invoked from the page.

Tracing Tracing Overview Trace Logging to Page Output Application-level Trace Logging

<script language="VB" runat=server> Function Subtract(num1 As Integer, num2 As Integer) As Integer Return(num1 - num2) End Function

Debugging The SDK Debugger

<%

Performance Performance Overview Performance Tuning Tips Measuring Performance

... number = subtract(number, 1) ... %> VB

ASP to ASP.NET Migration Migration Overview Syntax and Semantics Language Compatibility COM Interoperability Transactions Sample Applications A Personalized Portal An E-Commerce Storefront A Class Browser Application IBuySpy.com Get URL for this page

VB Reference2.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source] Important: Unlike ASP -- where functions could be declared within <% %> blocks -- all functions and global page variables must be declared in a <script runat=server> tag. Functions declared within <% %> blocks will now generate a syntax compile error.

ASP.NET Server Control Syntax Custom ASP.NET server controls enable page developers to dynamically generate HTML user interface (UI) and respond to client requests. They are represented within a file using a declarative, tag-based syntax. These tags are distinguished from other tags because they contain a "runat=server" attribute. The following example demonstrates how an server control can be used within an ASP.NET page. This control corresponds to the Label class in the System.Web.UI.WebControls namespace, which is included by default. By adding a tag with the ID "Message", an instance of Label is created at run time: The control can then be accessed using the same name. The following line sets the Text property of the control.

Message.Text = "Welcome to ASP.NET" VB

VB Reference3.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

ASP.NET HTML Server Control Syntax HTML server controls enable page developers to programmatically manipulate HTML elements within a page. An HTML server control tag is distinguished from client HTML elements by means of a "runat=server" attribute. The following example demonstrates how an HTML <span runat=server> server control can be used within an ASP.NET page. As with other server controls, the methods and properties are accessible programmatically, as shown in the following example.

<script language="VB" runat="server"> Sub Page_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Message.InnerHtml = "Welcome to ASP.NET" End Sub ... <span id="Message" style="font-size:24" runat="server"/> VB

VB Reference4.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Data Binding Syntax: <%# %> The data binding support built into ASP.NET enables page developers to hierarchically bind control properties to data container values. Code located within a <%# %> code block is only executed when the DataBind method of its parent control container is invoked. The following example demonstrates how to use the data binding syntax within an control. Within the datalist, the template for one item is specified. The content of the item template is specified using a data binding expression and the Container.DataItem refers to the data source used by the datalist MyList. Here is a value: <%# Container.DataItem %> In this case the data source of the MyList control is set programmatically, and then DataBind() is called.

Sub Page_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Dim items As New ArrayList() items.Add("One") items.Add("Two") items.Add("Three") MyList.DataSource = items MyList.DataBind() End Sub VB Calling the DataBind method of a control causes a recursive tree walk from that control on down in the tree; the DataBinding event is raised on each server control in that hierarchy, and data binding expressions on the control are evaluated accordingly. So, if the DataBind method of the page is called, then every data binding expression within the page will be called.

VB Reference5.aspx [Run Sample] | [View Source]

Object Tag Syntax: